Top positive review

A massive investigation into the demographics surrounding intelligence and American society. Much of the writing applies to the UK too. This book isn't exactly easy reading and takes some effort to work through, the results are well worth it though.

The central argument of the book is that intelligence is a strong predictor of life prospects, including the chance of getting a good job, being happily married, avoiding drugs, crime, large families and children born out of wedlock. The result of trends in US Society is seeing two separate groups emerge which increasingly have less and less interaction with each other. It follows that charity is not able to help poor people on the whole as their poverty is a result of their low intelligence.

Emotive reactions and politically correct thinking shouldn't interfere with scientific facts, if IQ is indeed hereditary to a large extent then nothing we say or feel will alter that. Having said this, there are plenty of people willing to twist data and misrepresent facts to suit their own far-right racist views. I'd warn the reader to be both open minded and critical of the book and to draw their own conclusions based on their wider knowledge of this debate.

I wasn't totally clear who the book was written for, the general public or academics? The book seems a little bloated and dry for your average reader but it seems to have been marketed to them. I felt the authors too were a little hesitant to draw conclusions from their data. Predicting the future is far from easy and making policy recommendations which will work is often even harder.

I wasn't convinced that the book did enough to take into account the social and economic barriers often found in societies around the world by which the children of the wealthy and privileged are given a much bigger hand up in life. The dismantling of some of these barriers is surely necessary before we can fairly judge. Plants growing in inferior quality soil will be unlikely to grow to the same height as those not, regardless of genetics. The book does argue using statistics that the brighter children of poorer parents will over the course of time achieve higher levels of success in their lives than those dull children born into middle class families.

Top critical review

3.0 out of 5 starsThe product was advertised as 'new', and I payed ...

21 February 2015

The product was advertised as 'new', and I payed a relatively high price. However, upon receiving the product, it became apparent to me that the book was clearly preowned; the first page was signed and dated, and there were ink stains on some of the other pages.

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A massive investigation into the demographics surrounding intelligence and American society. Much of the writing applies to the UK too. This book isn't exactly easy reading and takes some effort to work through, the results are well worth it though.

The central argument of the book is that intelligence is a strong predictor of life prospects, including the chance of getting a good job, being happily married, avoiding drugs, crime, large families and children born out of wedlock. The result of trends in US Society is seeing two separate groups emerge which increasingly have less and less interaction with each other. It follows that charity is not able to help poor people on the whole as their poverty is a result of their low intelligence.

Emotive reactions and politically correct thinking shouldn't interfere with scientific facts, if IQ is indeed hereditary to a large extent then nothing we say or feel will alter that. Having said this, there are plenty of people willing to twist data and misrepresent facts to suit their own far-right racist views. I'd warn the reader to be both open minded and critical of the book and to draw their own conclusions based on their wider knowledge of this debate.

I wasn't totally clear who the book was written for, the general public or academics? The book seems a little bloated and dry for your average reader but it seems to have been marketed to them. I felt the authors too were a little hesitant to draw conclusions from their data. Predicting the future is far from easy and making policy recommendations which will work is often even harder.

I wasn't convinced that the book did enough to take into account the social and economic barriers often found in societies around the world by which the children of the wealthy and privileged are given a much bigger hand up in life. The dismantling of some of these barriers is surely necessary before we can fairly judge. Plants growing in inferior quality soil will be unlikely to grow to the same height as those not, regardless of genetics. The book does argue using statistics that the brighter children of poorer parents will over the course of time achieve higher levels of success in their lives than those dull children born into middle class families.

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Very thought provoking book. Coldly clinical analysis of the implications of how American society is evolving and the implications therein, backed by hard statistics and a maths primer to help those without a Maths degreee (me). understand. This book has been attacked by the Left as being racist, elitist and downright bad, but it's just reporting on the observations. I'm sure it is very well received in China - the PRC does not operate on sentiment.

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Astonishing to see that in 2019 scientists such as James Watson are still being punished for speaking science-based truths regarding inherited intelligence, just as Hans Eysenck was decades ago. As the author states, the consensus among scientists is 180 degrees opposite to the media and public perception. If scientists speak on inherited intelligence in public they are severely punished by ill-informed socialists who can never alter their absurd political beliefs that all people are born equally intelligent and differences can be eliminated by redistribution of wealth to change the environment. Given the physical beatings and career destructions dished out over the post-war years, it is unsurprising scientists have learned to keep quiet on this topic. The authors and researchers who published The Bell Curve are very brave.

Perhaps in the distant future our generations will be viewed dimly for refusing to face facts and letting puritanical politics trump scientific research.

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Written 25 years ago but the ability of people to believe something while the statistical evidence is showing they are wrong has if anything increased. It would be interesting to see what the author's view of the somewhat dystopian future he paints in the book is now, with the advent of the internet and robotics.

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Now I understand why IQ, especially the part about inherited, is a no-no subject and a no-go land. It is because the whole subject, cause and effect, after all is so scientifically clear, that the only response left in a politically correct world is to demonize and deny. The response has been: “You cannot say that”. But, sorry, there it is: IQ is extremely important, the most important factor in explaining the fate of groups of humans. And why wouldn’t it be? The idea of denying the importance of the quality that is the separating factor between humans and apes is ridiculous. After all, do apes have history, books, mathematics, roads, bridges…etc?This thorough, evidence-based, book is such an eye-opener that I read it in one go, and then started all over again. To the authors and scientists: Thank you for that. It is like the pleasure of seeing the missing parts of a complicated equation surfacing before your eyes.The authors have added a chapter explaining basic statistical distribution told in easy words. Hooray for that. It should give all normal-IQed journalist the means to understand the book if they want to write about it.

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Anybody assessing IQ that hasn't read this cannot be doing their job properly. Anybody interested in IQ and especially what just happened to James Watson will find Chapter 13 of great interest. More than a book, it's a collectors piece.

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Not since the origin of the species has a book spent so much time apologising for the facts it represents. Meticulous in covering all perspectives and openly admitting its own failures, I struggle to it's critics point of view having read many of their attempts.